5.4 Published Rules and Regulations

• Library: A Guide to Legal Research in Virginia (Virginia CLE) (2017 Ed.)

5.4 PUBLISHED RULES AND REGULATIONS

5.401 Registrar of Regulations. The Virginia Register Act ⁸ requires every agency having express or implied authority to issue regulations to file with the Registrar of Regulations the full text of the current regulations as well as the dates of adoption, revision, publication, or amendment. ⁹ The agency must also provide the registrar with all repeals of and amendments or additions to previously filed regulations. Each agency must also maintain a complete file of the full texts of all of its regulations and must make this file available to the public for inspection and copying. Until a regulation, amendment, or repeal is filed with the registrar, it cannot become effective. Regulations must be filed in accordance with guidelines contained in section 2.2-4103 of the Virginia Code.

In 2007, a Virginia Regulatory Town Hall was created as a comprehensive source of information about regulatory changes under consideration in Virginia. Participants may find regulations and track changes as well as submit online comments about regulatory changes at http://townhall.virginia.gov. ¹⁰

5.402 Virginia Register of Regulations. A publication entitled Virginia Register of Regulations (Virginia Register), produced by the Virginia Code Commission, is issued every two weeks. ¹¹ Indexes are published quarterly, and the final index of the year is cumulative. The Virginia Register is sold by subscription and is distributed without charge to a public library in every jurisdiction in Virginia. Upon request, it is distributed to members of the General Assembly.

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The Virginia Register contains proposed and final regulations; emergency regulations; Governor's executive orders; petitions for rulemaking; and notices of all public hearings on regulations. Each regulation is preceded by a summary prepared by the agency. The procedures an agency must follow to adopt, amend, or repeal a regulation are summarized on the first page of each issue of the Virginia Register, along with procedures governing emergency regulations.

The Virginia Register website can be found at http://register.dls.virginia.gov. In 2002, the Code Commission created a searchable database for the Virginia Register that includes, in Microsoft® Word format, proposed, final, and emergency regulations that date back to May 21, 2001. Complete copies of Registers in PDF format dating back to Volume 1, Issue 1, October 15, 1984 are available. Both LexisNexis and Westlaw offer...